ETC

As usual, US stocks are the last to “get it.” But this won’t last for long. The S&P 500 is sitting on the ledge of a massive cliff. And when it finally tumbles, the move will be both fast and violent.

My advice to Ben Bernanke is simple. If you consider yourself a public servant, spend less time trying to concoct ways to defend your legacy, and spend more time on what you did that didn’t work, what can be learned from it, and what current policy makers can change and do better. Here is a theoretical title to a Bernanke blog post that I would like to read, but don’t think will ever get wrriten “Things I was wrong about, what I learned, and what the Fed should do differently going forward.”

The future is upon us. JP Morgan, in an effort to stop its employees from rigging markets, aiding criminals, and generally doing all of the things that appear on the unofficial global investment bank perks of employment list, is going into full-on Minority Report mode by deploying algorithms designed to predict which employees will go rogue before it actually happens.

So what makes this structure Neofeudal? Simply this: the tax donkeys who pay most of the tax support the large class of modern-day serfs (working poor and state dependents) while their labor generates the great wealth enjoyed by the Financial Aristocracy.

Sorry... but it's your fault you're offended all the time.

Guarantees based on extracting higher taxes, borrowing trillions of dollars and creating trillions more out of thin air only guarantee eventual systemic implosion.

With a long weekend upon us, ConvergEx's Nick Colas takes the opportunity to wax a bit philosophical.  The question for the day: "How do you survive middle age while working on Wall Street?"  After polling a few friends of a similar vintage to his own 25 year history on the Street, he has come up with a Top 10 list of dos and don’ts.  The key take away from all these thoughts is pretty simple – the journey never stops, so keep investing in yourself, your friends, and your allies. These may not guarantee success, but ignoring them surely leads to failure. 

Taking the gold-backed dollar into the next millenium and imbuing it with all of the attributes of the Bitcoin blockchain.

Our current faith in central banks' ability to "make the economy all better, all the time" is horrendously misplaced.

"Greece is drawing up drastic plans to nationalise the country's banking system and introduce a parallel currency to pay bills unless the eurozone takes steps to defuse the simmering crisis and soften its demands," The Telegraph reports, contradicting officials' "categorical" denial that the country faces a cash crunch and possible default as early as April 9. Will the curtain finally fall on the long-running tragicomedy that is the Greco-Euro standoff? 

If the government of Australia is concerned that their well-capitalized banking system needs a safety net and wants to tax deposits for such purpose, how in the world can we possibly expect the US and Europe, with all of their banking system risk, won’t do the same?

When an economic crisis is coming, there are usually certain indicators that appear in advance...